Love that too. That's really how it should be; if you just need that answer right now, there you have it. If you actually want to learn stuff, stay awhile and listen...
I was shocked at first that he referred to Barilla as the cheap pasta but then I remembered that he is literally a youtube chef and not a broke student haha
Same haha. I had so many chefs explain why more expensive pasta is better, so I thought alright, I'll invest in some expensive Barilla pasta and rediscover my love for noodles. This was like a kick to the guts 😂
I feel like the argument in this video is a little misleading; good pasta doesn't always have to be expensive. In Canada we have a brand called Italpasta and they have a range of bronze die extruded pasta that tends to be even cheaper than your standard Barilla or Catelli or whatever.
@@peachpie2460 Honestly just buy DeCecco and be done with it. It's not even that much more expensive than standard Barilla. And like, I've never really understood the obsession with buying the cheapest thing on the shelf, anyway. Unless you're draining your bank account to the single digits between paychecks, you can afford to spend an extra dollar on spaghetti or whatever. But I mean, if you are doing that, then yeah, buy the cheapest you can find. That is a thing you should do. But if not, buy quality when you can.
Is it a case of the bronze pasta releasing more starch, or absorbing more water which makes the water more starchy simply by virtue of the fact that there is less water left over. 5g of starch in 200ml of water is a 2.5% concentration, and 5g of starch in 100ml of water is a 5% concentration but its the same total amount of starch.
I was wondering the same thing but you'd still have to reduce the volume of water in the teflon pasta to make a comparable sauce. Also, what do you think of the latest Civ 6 update? ;)
@@TheSlavChef I'm thinking Ethan was a Hussar in a past life. Maybe he should rename the channel 'The Hussar Chef' :) BTW, good to see you here. I'm off to watch your latest upload next.
I just want to say I appreciate your no-nonsense approach to showing your work, and that you led with the results and then explained them, rather than bury them in some ads or whatnot. You've earned my subscription for presentation alone.
While dried and fresh pasta are totally different, one could argue that there are also a lot of differences between machine rolled and hand rolled fresh pasta.
#1. Your teapot rocks! #2. Agree with all your conclusions #3. When I’m cooking for the fam. . .use bronze cut. When my 16 yo grand is cooking at 0400, she uses Teflon cut as she just dumps some bottle sauce on it. #4. Please never stop teaching and educating us Your vids are informative and concise . .did I mention concise?
i came here cause i tried bronze cut pasta for the first time after my wife got it at a local lidl store, and it blew my mind how much tastier the dish is as a whole, including the incredibly rich texture. it was amazing. and i wanted to know more right away. i've been using cheap pasta my whole life and didn't know that this is the traditional pasta and this is how all those original dishes was intended to be served with. amazing. never going back to cheap ripoff pastas any more
I can't praise your channel enough. You answer the questions posed straight away, you back up your argument with evidence, and you rely on the good wisdom of Harold McGee. This channel is a worthy subscribe.
The best way to get starchy water is simply to use much less water than usual!!! A few years ago I started cooking my pasta in a shallow sautee pan instead of a pot. It requires much less water and results in a much starchier water. It is also faster because the water comes to a boil quicker, and it saves water. The pasta doesn't stick and cooks just fine!
if you wanna go crazy you can boil it in the same water you boiled your pasta previously (very specific scenario lol). A way to go around this may be to leave a pot of pasta water to boil of in order to make super concentrated pasta water concentrate, its gonna be saltier as well, but you can adjust the salt you add to the sauce to account for that
one of my favorite channels on youtube now . the production quality, no bs narrative progressions, and the application of science makes makes you stand out from a lot of others. you’re killing it man!!
2:32 wouldn't you need to dilute the bronze die solution up to 250 mL in order to compare starch absorption based of color/opacity? One could observe that the bronze die cut is more opaque because there's less solvent per unit starch. I'm sure your testing showed that there's more starch absorption. This side by side might just not be the best reflection of that finding. Neat video! Keep it up!
They're not equal for 2 reasons: 1. The cooking times were different because he based it off package times so more likely boiled away. 2. He talks about how the pasta absorbs water differently. The more expensive just absorbed more water.
in practice this doesn't really matter though; you don't care about the total amount of starch released, you care about how concentrated the starch is when you're adding it back to your sauce, more concentrated starch water means you aren't diluting the other components of the sauce excessively to get the necessary effect. obviously you could manipulate this by boiling your pasta in less water to concentrate the released starch, but this has a practical lower bound where you start to sacrifice evenness of cooking
Technically yes but actually not really. You basically already answered your own question. In one there is less liquid per unit of starch. wich is what you want, when you cook with it, because more liquid for the same amount of starch means you dilute your sauce more then you actually would want to so your sauce doesnt get creamy. Still emulsified but propably more liquid then creamy
That's why‽ I always noticed the texture difference but never bothered to figure out why. Thank you! Not the best but for really cheap pasta I used to use bicarbonate soda in the water to break down the glossy texture
@@pabloschultz5192 it's so cool! I mean, I know writing " ?!? " is cool and that's how we text.. but like, an interrobang (the symbol ‽) is just so much more refined. Don't you think??!??!???!!! (Lol)
10 seconds into the video and you answered the question. No stupid stories and lame puns about the like or subscribe buttons. This is how RUclips videos should be. Great job, thanks for respecting your audience.
I will say though ethan, if you cook the pasta using the minimal water method and you let it go a lil longer + let the starch water condense in the pot before putting the sauce on the pasta, you get both the starch sauce thickening benefits, a softer textured pasta, and the cheaper price. It just takes a lil bit longer and it'll make the italians mad but in a pinch it'll do
@@KM-pm6qe you dont need it, the differences here are not massive, so to get more starch you just add more pasta water; the sauce cooks in water anyway, so you can add more starchy pasta water and less tap water. i personally disagree with ethan on this one. the extra starch in the water does not justify the price increase. most ppl are dumping the pasta water, so already if you use it in the sauce you’re creating a better sauce. cucina povera
an extra dollar per pasta box is an understatement when a single one costs 0.30. Thats more than 200% price increase. In my eyes barilla is already the expensive one
Sure, my favorite brand of bronze cut pasta is $1.50 versus that 0.30, and that's a huge price difference. But also that's still only $1.50 for a kitchen staple that basically never goes bad and feeds a family. i've spent way more on the same amount of rice and bread. Pasta is cheap.
Im at between 90 cents and 1.25 for store brand pasts per box i tried some raos for like 4 bucks one time it was way better but if im gonna spend $10 on ingredients for a meal id either just spend the time to do from scratch or go buy it at a restaurant
Barilla is, like, middle of the road in terms of price. There are nicer more traditionally made pastas that cost $4 or $5 a box/bag, then you may find artisan pastas that can cost $6 or even $8 a bag. And that's just what I see in my local grocery... there's an italian foods store in my town that I haven't had enough time to delve into that has a wide variety of examples.
I used to only care about pasta shapes, not the brand. But then I tried La Molisana pasta. Takes way longer to cook than I expected... but the texture when it's perfectly done is miles above anything else I've tried personally. Just looked it up and it turns out that it is Bronze Die cut. Can't speak to any other high quality brands, but Molisana is definitely worth trying if you've never tried it before.
Thank you for doing this experiment and sharing your results! I especially appreciate how you are willing to throw your own assumptions out the window and simply share your findings. You also did a great job of explaining the principles behind exactly why the two noodle types are different, and why it matters. Keep up the good work!
I'd imagine the sauce sticking to the bronze die pasta is more important for shapes that have a generally smoother shape, something like a bucatini for instance. The ridges in the shape of pasta you used for the test probably served a similar function.
Yep agreed! The area of the rough texture is way more in a long pasta (spaghetti shaped) than in a penne style. You just simply get way more rough textured area and that could hold the sauce better
Wow, it's rare that I learn something really worthwhile in the first minute of a RUclips vid. I knew that rough exterior on pasta was better, but not why. Being a techie/engineer type person, it's really good to know the reason why there's a two different types of pasta
I think it's better like this. That way the question in the title isn't taking up valuable brain space for most of the video, and you can relax and really enjoy the content.
i love this video! it was so fascinating to learn about how the pasta making process affects the pastas properties. i also love how you left it up for the person’s interpretation of what they enjoy. Thank you!
Don’t worry about it man, I live in the US and we only buy the “cheaper” pasta, if you want starchier water, just take the pasta water and boil it down a little bit & you’ll have the same result 👍🏼
I really enjoy how you didn't use any camera tricks or leaps in logic to drive a narrative. The results were what they were and you rolled with it. Respect.
Perhaps you could tackle which specific dishes are best to add MSG to. People talk about popcorn and marinara but are there other dishes you think MSG would make a good addition to?
Hmm this is super interesting! I wonder if adding starch slurry into the sauces (e.g. corn starch or wheat starch) would make up for the lack of starch in the pasta water.
I think this is one of those with great power (price) comes great responsibility kinda thing as well. The bronze cut stuff absorbs water faster so it's also harder to keep it al dente. If I were fixing up a weekday dinner, I actually prefer the cheap stuff because even if I miss the timing a little bit, it doesn't get mushy that quickly.
dude your channel is so great, thank you for the taking the time to make the experiments for us. You precisely expose the reasons for why is A better than B instead of just saying it like chefs Keep it up man
If being nit picky, I think diagonal grooved pasta(teflon) is tortiglioni not rigatoni. If used rigatoni, surface area may potentially b smaller giving even greater differences in result. None the less great concise video! Love it
This video is really informative, like when people say "who cares?" but a lot of people do indeed kind of informative. Also unique, and comforting. Because you are spotting the differences in your kitchen, not in some boring, all-greyed factory. Now I'm going to check my pasta :D Thanks.
Here in Germany I always buy the cheapest pasta and it’s perfectly fine for me. It usually runs at less than 50 cent and whenever I use a fresh sauce no one will complain about the quality
Love to see that you are actually testing these things there are so many people out there that refuse to consider that something they learned might be wrong
I'm Italian and i eat pasta nearly every day and yes, there is a significant difference and the expensive bronze cut pasta is much better, especially if you're going for a rustic recipe I don't know if it's aviable where you live but my favourite is Rummo pasta
Rummo is probably hard to get it abroad, they don't really expand on their own as far as I know. I know De Cecco and Garofalo are really pushing the international market, those are much better than Barilla. Also, if you are lucky, you may find that even foreign grands may be done in Italy. They should always write the address of the factory, if it's made in Gragnano (NA) or anywhere in (MO) it is usually good.
La Molisana here. It's all we use now. I think it's even better than DeCecco tbh. Try their spaghetti quadrati instead of regular spaghetti for something different with amazing texture.
Even though i am vegan, (and are propably gonna use alot of substitutes to most dishes on this channel) i am really enjoying how Ethan goes so much into basics. Very motivating and well put together. I must say this channel has to be one of my most favorite channels on youtube :))
I tried this as part of my examination of "authenticity" in cooking. I started making Carbonara with Guanciale rather than Bacon or Pancetta. I bought a big heavy granite mortar and pestle rather than using a food processor to process the basil. I tried Irish cultured butter rather than domestic plain butter. And I bought De Cecco rather than Barilla pasta. Final conclusion - not much difference. But I've never used the mortar and pestle again for basil, anymore than I have ever hand cranked ice cream ever again. If time is money - never do it by hand. You state the issues clearly and judiciously, but you need some blind taste tests to get quantitative results. My guess the results would be that bronze die pasta costs 50% more and is preferred by about 5% more tasters. You can train yourself to notice tiny distinctions just as you can teach yourself to only like an 1855 Bordeaux with dinner. Good luck with that.
We don't have easy to find bronze cut organic pasta here in Australia. The basic supermarket one is what I use and cook it as a one pot meal in the Instant Pot for 0 minutes. The sauce emulsifies well enough from the starch but the texture of the pasta isn't that great so thanks, this video was very helpful to understand why.
Call me stupid, but WHY exactly has the starch to come from the pasta? Wouldn't it work exactly as well -- or better, depending on the amount -- if you added the starch as a say slurry when creating the sauce?
Thank you for finally busting this nonsense about how ridges in pasta help sauce adhere better. Anyone who's ever eaten pasta should know this obviously makes no sense but I keep hearing it get repeated across youtube cooking channels. You're a blessing man!
I was thinking the exact same thing. If the only difference is extrusion, saving 50 cents is worth much more than a tablespoon or two of white wheat flour. You would probably want to add it to the cold water before heating to prevent clumping (or add it directly to the sauce before cooking so you aren't just pouring most of it down the drain).
I mean, I always feel like a loser for choosing this option. I can barely feel any difference after cooking it and emulsifying it with the sauce of my choice. For me, it's a no-brainer for the cheaper version, which makes me concentrate more on the sauce's ingredients.
What I learned from this video: If you are making a sauce from scratch and need the pasta water, use the more expensive pasta. If you're eating pasta with already prepared sauce, probably won't make a difference.
I've eaten Barilla literally all my life I have ALWAYS wondered about this! Thank you for the thoughtful experimentation and analysis. Your work is a gift to my cooking and curiosity. Keep it up!!!
This channel is great. He answers questions I never knew I had. I don’t even know there was an expensive or more costly pasta. Now I’ll have to go look.
Hey Ethan! While I enjoyed the video I have a couple issues with your scientific method that I‘d like to point out: 1) The two kinds of pasta have different shapes. This could result to more or less surface area for the same weight. I know it‘s hard to find the exact same shape of pasta but it should have at least been brought up. 2) The ingredients in the pasta were never discussed. The bronze pasta could just be made of flour that absorbs water better. 3) The bronze pasta doesn’t necessarily release more starch. It may have released the same amount as the other but absorbed more water. This would increase the starch concentration and thus make the water more opaque. You could have diluted the water to the same volume of the other beaker for a more rigorous test. 4) You describe the texture of the teflon pasta as firmer. Yet you also say you cooked them for the same amount of time and have found that the bronze pasta absorbes more water. A fairer test would require you to cook both to the manufacturers instructions and then test their texture. All in all, I neither agree nor disagree with your conclusions. I just want to point out that your method to getting to them were flawed. You can do better next time :) And for a more personal note: I like barilla and de‘cecci. They‘re my favourite and cut on bronze.
My comment isn't in relation to this one video, but in relation to the channel as a whole. I'm a home cook that is trying to drive up my skill and technique in the culinary arts as best I can and this channel in particular has been extremely revealing. I appreciate wholeheartedly everything I've learned from you. Your kitchen organization video was enlightening, I liked the refrigerator section in particular and have organized mine in a likewise fashion. Unfortunately I think my biggest issue at this point is the equipment I have at my disposal. I ate many homes and apartments in the Midwestern and other sections of the country have electric stove tops or induction tops. I would be very curious to see some other information regarding how cooking on these surfaces affects cook times and other QC aspects of cooking. Keep up the good work, I look forward to every video.
Deftinitly not worth paying more just for the added starch. Just cook the cheaper pasta in the minimal water volume required to increase the starch concentration in the water. Only learned more recently that you don't need anywhere near as much water to cook pasta as was preached for so many decades.
Great episode Ethan! Informative as always. Thank you for doing these side by sides, and being completely honest and unbiased about the results. You are the perfect combination of a foodie and a scientist!
I personally prefer the more expensive one, because the cheap pasta here is locally made and it basically sucks. Also that starchyness you speak of is the thing i seek, so yeah. Great video again, as always.
Great topic and video Ethan. I have found the Felicetti & De Cecco vs Barilla has the following differences; Felicetti & De Cecco seem to cook more uniformly. The tightness from the exterior to the interior seems more consistent, while the Barilla seems to be more done on the exterior than the interior. Felicetti & De Cecco with and without pasta sauce, just taste better than Barilla. Felicetti & De Cecco are a very noticeable and independently flavorful component to my pasta / marinara / Alfredo dishes while Barilla is a less noticeable ingredient that is well in the background behind the Pasta sauce. Lasty, I agree with you 100%. The starchy water left over from excellent pasta is more useful for thickening and improving flavor of sauces, than cheap pasta water. Anyway, that's what I have noticed.
I've always found the starch argument questionable. Wouldn't it be cheaper and easier to just add a handful of semolina to the cooking water? Or maybe reuse cooking water so the starch gets more concentrated.
It is feasible to reserve starchy water between cookings for sure - I think Alex does this in one of his videos, and I've dabbled in it. The advantage here is that the higher starch concentration just comes about naturally as a result of the pasta itself, and wouldn't require extra tools/steps beyond just cooking.
That was one hell of a creative way to pronounce "Amatriciana" Not making fun of you, it's just funny to hear foreigners try to pronounce some italian words lol
I love the expensive ones. Rustichella D'Abruzzo and DeCecco are my favorites but I can't find them or at least the ones I like everywhere. Really good video, I would add the bronze die-cut ones even have a different taste. Thanks for sharing.
The different taste comes from the drying process. The cheap pasta is dried at a very high temperature, basically already cooking the thing. When you boil them you are really just rehydrating them. Good pasta, on the other hand, is dryed at low temperature and the flavor is preserved better
@@federicoclaps5099 Interesting. I once heard someone saying Rustichella D'Abruzzo were dried by breeze of the sea. Not sure if that's true but they certainly taste like that.
You're doing better work here than America's Test Kitchen. I've watched lots of ATK videos on different pastas, none make a comparison between or even mention Teflon vs. bronze die cuts. Good job!
Loved this! You got straight to the point, then showed some solid analysis later. Like others have mentioned, you may want to dilute the bronze dye cut water up to the other pasta's levels to do an apples to apples starch comparison but that's really just a nitpick, the end result is still starchier pasta water
Is expensive pasta actually better? That question is answered within 5 seconds.. But there's still another 5 minutes of information afterwards for those of us who want it. This is why I love Ethan's videos, straight to the point but also loaded with good recipes, amazing technical info, and just overall excellent production value with an awesome host.
I make spaghetti alla gricia at least once a week, and I have found that (of the available spaghetti in our local UK supermarket) De Cecco No 12 (bronze die) is the only one that allows the sauce to properly coat/stick to the individual noodles during the emulsification stage so that when served, the pasta remains glossy and coated with the sauce...
Love how you gave us the answer in the first few seconds, i was intrigued to know more
Love that too. That's really how it should be; if you just need that answer right now, there you have it. If you actually want to learn stuff, stay awhile and listen...
It shows that he knows what we want, an answer then to be entertained. He does both effectively and enjoyably.
@@CrizztlCoder it's like the inverted pyramid of journalism
Exactly, I love that delivery.
I was JUST about to say that. I literally was like 😧😧 so.... it’s that easy!?!? YT take NOTES
I love how Ethan doesn’t BS, love all these videos.
I got you :)
and i just love ethan 😳
Real heroes wear moustaches!
@@EthanChlebowski :)
@@_yuri same
I was shocked at first that he referred to Barilla as the cheap pasta but then I remembered that he is literally a youtube chef and not a broke student haha
Same haha. I had so many chefs explain why more expensive pasta is better, so I thought alright, I'll invest in some expensive Barilla pasta and rediscover my love for noodles. This was like a kick to the guts 😂
lmao I thought the same.....
I feel like the argument in this video is a little misleading; good pasta doesn't always have to be expensive. In Canada we have a brand called Italpasta and they have a range of bronze die extruded pasta that tends to be even cheaper than your standard Barilla or Catelli or whatever.
Both are actually Barilla.
@@peachpie2460 Honestly just buy DeCecco and be done with it. It's not even that much more expensive than standard Barilla. And like, I've never really understood the obsession with buying the cheapest thing on the shelf, anyway. Unless you're draining your bank account to the single digits between paychecks, you can afford to spend an extra dollar on spaghetti or whatever. But I mean, if you are doing that, then yeah, buy the cheapest you can find. That is a thing you should do. But if not, buy quality when you can.
Is it a case of the bronze pasta releasing more starch, or absorbing more water which makes the water more starchy simply by virtue of the fact that there is less water left over. 5g of starch in 200ml of water is a 2.5% concentration, and 5g of starch in 100ml of water is a 5% concentration but its the same total amount of starch.
potato! what a pleasant surprise!
I was wondering the same thing but you'd still have to reduce the volume of water in the teflon pasta to make a comparable sauce. Also, what do you think of the latest Civ 6 update? ;)
He should have boiled off the water and measured the weight left over
I bet both factors happen, but it seems unlikely that switching from teflon to bronze would change the remaining water mass by a factor of 2
Fr he isn't wrong about which one is better, but his reasoning behind it is wrong.
He really answered the question in the first 10 seconds of the video huh
Respect
It is refreshing that its anti click bait. You get the answer then you care about why
When the imposter is sus 😳
So glad you didn't make this video 20 minutes long for the revenue. It was so concise and informative. Thank you!
Real heroes wear moustaches!
You can tell he really takes pride in his work
@@TheSlavChef I'm thinking Ethan was a Hussar in a past life.
Maybe he should rename the channel 'The Hussar Chef' :)
BTW, good to see you here. I'm off to watch your latest upload next.
@@valvenator Lol, now as you say that, he looks exactly like a Hussar from the old paintings :D I hope you will like the new vid! :)
I just want to say I appreciate your no-nonsense approach to showing your work, and that you led with the results and then explained them, rather than bury them in some ads or whatnot. You've earned my subscription for presentation alone.
Now am really interested in how it compares to homemade pasta (handmade Vs using a home alternative machine).
Could be an interesting topic!
I feel like if you've ever made fresh pasta, then you'd never ask this question
While dried and fresh pasta are totally different, one could argue that there are also a lot of differences between machine rolled and hand rolled fresh pasta.
Fresh pasta and dried pasta are just totally different things. Would you mean like a homemade dried pasta?
Yeah, do this
#1. Your teapot rocks!
#2. Agree with all your conclusions
#3. When I’m cooking for the fam. . .use bronze cut.
When my 16 yo grand is cooking at 0400, she uses Teflon cut as she just dumps some bottle sauce on it.
#4. Please never stop teaching and educating us
Your vids are informative and concise . .did I mention concise?
Every time I hear "Teflon-coated pasta" my brain takes a minute to catch up again
I just came from Tom Scott's video on Grice's Maxims. Let me tell you, after that video, I found the phrase "teflon-coated pasta" extremely amusing.
amusing but unsettling imagery.
Holy moly screw that. I didn't know they had teflon-cut pasta.
Non stick pasta.
I don't eat teflon , thank you !
i was shocked that he just straight up answered the question in the first 20 seconds of the video. Props!
more like in the first 4 seconds
i came here cause i tried bronze cut pasta for the first time after my wife got it at a local lidl store, and it blew my mind how much tastier the dish is as a whole, including the incredibly rich texture. it was amazing. and i wanted to know more right away. i've been using cheap pasta my whole life and didn't know that this is the traditional pasta and this is how all those original dishes was intended to be served with. amazing. never going back to cheap ripoff pastas any more
I can't praise your channel enough. You answer the questions posed straight away, you back up your argument with evidence, and you rely on the good wisdom of Harold McGee. This channel is a worthy subscribe.
I love how you answer questions I've thought about but never bothered searching it up. Legitimately so interesting and helpful
The best way to get starchy water is simply to use much less water than usual!!! A few years ago I started cooking my pasta in a shallow sautee pan instead of a pot. It requires much less water and results in a much starchier water. It is also faster because the water comes to a boil quicker, and it saves water. The pasta doesn't stick and cooks just fine!
Thanks man
good trick
This is absolutely true. I use a 2qt sauté pan with straight side.
Simole
Exactly. Why would I pay more for noodles when I can just use less water for the same effect?
if you wanna go crazy you can boil it in the same water you boiled your pasta previously (very specific scenario lol). A way to go around this may be to leave a pot of pasta water to boil of in order to make super concentrated pasta water concentrate, its gonna be saltier as well, but you can adjust the salt you add to the sauce to account for that
I really like how you put your conclusion in the beginning, more people should do that :)
The question I didn't know I wanted to ask.
Same
one of my favorite channels on youtube now . the production quality, no bs narrative progressions, and the application of science makes makes you stand out from a lot of others. you’re killing it man!!
Explains why some of my sauces didn't quite come together sometimes, when i was sure I used the same methods! Thank you!!
Answering the Title question in 5 secs earned a sub. This is good you tube ethics.
2:32 wouldn't you need to dilute the bronze die solution up to 250 mL in order to compare starch absorption based of color/opacity?
One could observe that the bronze die cut is more opaque because there's less solvent per unit starch.
I'm sure your testing showed that there's more starch absorption. This side by side might just not be the best reflection of that finding.
Neat video! Keep it up!
They're not equal for 2 reasons:
1. The cooking times were different because he based it off package times so more likely boiled away.
2. He talks about how the pasta absorbs water differently. The more expensive just absorbed more water.
in practice this doesn't really matter though; you don't care about the total amount of starch released, you care about how concentrated the starch is when you're adding it back to your sauce, more concentrated starch water means you aren't diluting the other components of the sauce excessively to get the necessary effect.
obviously you could manipulate this by boiling your pasta in less water to concentrate the released starch, but this has a practical lower bound where you start to sacrifice evenness of cooking
Technically yes but actually not really.
You basically already answered your own question. In one there is less liquid per unit of starch. wich is what you want, when you cook with it, because more liquid for the same amount of starch means you dilute your sauce more then you actually would want to so your sauce doesnt get creamy. Still emulsified but propably more liquid then creamy
@@nangzdk sick!
@@JustCallMeCharlie thanks!
That's why‽ I always noticed the texture difference but never bothered to figure out why. Thank you! Not the best but for really cheap pasta I used to use bicarbonate soda in the water to break down the glossy texture
Wow on the use of ‽ 👌🏼
@@hugitkissitloveit8640 why haha what is special about it
@@pabloschultz5192 it's so cool! I mean, I know writing " ?!? " is cool and that's how we text.. but like, an interrobang (the symbol ‽) is just so much more refined. Don't you think??!??!???!!! (Lol)
Ethan and Josh uploading at the same time, again. You love to see it
No cap
Ethan is much better in my opinion; his recipes are more practical for the home cook
@@nowdefunctchannel6874 true, but Josh is so entertaining lmao
Right? I just learned how to make a super cheap breakfast, and now I'm learning about why the more expensive pasta is superior. It's a good day.
10 seconds into the video and you answered the question. No stupid stories and lame puns about the like or subscribe buttons. This is how RUclips videos should be. Great job, thanks for respecting your audience.
This made me feel good about the made in italy pasta i bought recently 👀
I *really* appreciate that you get straight to the point
I will say though ethan, if you cook the pasta using the minimal water method and you let it go a lil longer + let the starch water condense in the pot before putting the sauce on the pasta, you get both the starch sauce thickening benefits, a softer textured pasta, and the cheaper price. It just takes a lil bit longer and it'll make the italians mad but in a pinch it'll do
softer textured pasta?! Blasphemy. Al dente or nothing!
Couldn’t you also just add a dash of flour to get you close enough?
Ben cotta pasta is the best
@@miyounova agreed
@@KM-pm6qe you dont need it, the differences here are not massive, so to get more starch you just add more pasta water; the sauce cooks in water anyway, so you can add more starchy pasta water and less tap water. i personally disagree with ethan on this one. the extra starch in the water does not justify the price increase. most ppl are dumping the pasta water, so already if you use it in the sauce you’re creating a better sauce. cucina povera
I love that you videos are short and to the point and that you start the video with the answer.
Keep the high quality up👍
an extra dollar per pasta box is an understatement when a single one costs 0.30. Thats more than 200% price increase. In my eyes barilla is already the expensive one
exactly
Sure, my favorite brand of bronze cut pasta is $1.50 versus that 0.30, and that's a huge price difference. But also that's still only $1.50 for a kitchen staple that basically never goes bad and feeds a family. i've spent way more on the same amount of rice and bread. Pasta is cheap.
Im at between 90 cents and 1.25 for store brand pasts per box i tried some raos for like 4 bucks one time it was way better but if im gonna spend $10 on ingredients for a meal id either just spend the time to do from scratch or go buy it at a restaurant
Barilla is, like, middle of the road in terms of price. There are nicer more traditionally made pastas that cost $4 or $5 a box/bag, then you may find artisan pastas that can cost $6 or even $8 a bag. And that's just what I see in my local grocery... there's an italian foods store in my town that I haven't had enough time to delve into that has a wide variety of examples.
Americans... you are killing me. Just get good pasta ❤
I like that you answer the question at the start of the video for us. Thanks
3:15 All hail the standing noodle
we stan
@@ah-xt2uc Together
Hail!
Very nice of you to tell it straight away.
I used to only care about pasta shapes, not the brand. But then I tried La Molisana pasta. Takes way longer to cook than I expected... but the texture when it's perfectly done is miles above anything else I've tried personally. Just looked it up and it turns out that it is Bronze Die cut. Can't speak to any other high quality brands, but Molisana is definitely worth trying if you've never tried it before.
I always wondered the difference, so thanks for going so in depth!
Also, nice touch with the chapters on the side panel.
It's kinda funny that the cheap pasta he's using here is actually the most expensive brand where I live xD
What even funnier is both pasta is the same company.
No kidding... The only Collezione pasta I have available at my area Kroger Grocery is the Tortellini, which is 5.99 a box, for 12 ounces.
Thank you for doing this experiment and sharing your results! I especially appreciate how you are willing to throw your own assumptions out the window and simply share your findings. You also did a great job of explaining the principles behind exactly why the two noodle types are different, and why it matters. Keep up the good work!
I'd imagine the sauce sticking to the bronze die pasta is more important for shapes that have a generally smoother shape, something like a bucatini for instance. The ridges in the shape of pasta you used for the test probably served a similar function.
Yep agreed! The area of the rough texture is way more in a long pasta (spaghetti shaped) than in a penne style. You just simply get way more rough textured area and that could hold the sauce better
Wow, it's rare that I learn something really worthwhile in the first minute of a RUclips vid. I knew that rough exterior on pasta was better, but not why. Being a techie/engineer type person, it's really good to know the reason why there's a two different types of pasta
I think it's better like this. That way the question in the title isn't taking up valuable brain space for most of the video, and you can relax and really enjoy the content.
To test sauce retention, tare a scale with each pasta, dip into the same sauce, and weigh the pasta.
That’s what I thought was gonna happen
i love this video! it was so fascinating to learn about how the pasta making process affects the pastas properties. i also love how you left it up for the person’s interpretation of what they enjoy. Thank you!
Shit, the "cheaper pasta" is literally the most expensive brand of pasta in my country. Second world sucks...
Don’t worry about it man, I live in the US and we only buy the “cheaper” pasta, if you want starchier water, just take the pasta water and boil it down a little bit & you’ll have the same result 👍🏼
they are both the same brand
You lucky that you didn't happen to see a third world countries ;d
@Warpdroid well, they still at same level of development , so it's easy to count loosers.
@Warpdroid look at the geopolitics major over here
I really enjoy how you didn't use any camera tricks or leaps in logic to drive a narrative. The results were what they were and you rolled with it. Respect.
Perhaps you could tackle which specific dishes are best to add MSG to. People talk about popcorn and marinara but are there other dishes you think MSG would make a good addition to?
Anything you want to add umami to! I used to use it like salt basically until I ran out.
Adding a small pinch to oats in the morning is a real kick to an otherwise bland meal
You can look at the gudas food videos, he has one where he experiments putting MSG on many foods
Straight to the point, concise and informational. I really admire the level of professionalism of Ethan's videos like damnnnnn
Hmm this is super interesting! I wonder if adding starch slurry into the sauces (e.g. corn starch or wheat starch) would make up for the lack of starch in the pasta water.
I love how you answer the question right at the beginning of the video. It's refreshing to see.
I think this is one of those with great power (price) comes great responsibility kinda thing as well. The bronze cut stuff absorbs water faster so it's also harder to keep it al dente. If I were fixing up a weekday dinner, I actually prefer the cheap stuff because even if I miss the timing a little bit, it doesn't get mushy that quickly.
dude your channel is so great, thank you for the taking the time to make the experiments for us.
You precisely expose the reasons for why is A better than B instead of just saying it like chefs
Keep it up man
Answering the question straight away? That's legit
One of my favourite cooking Channels.👍Best wishes to you from across the Ocean 🇩🇪
If being nit picky, I think diagonal grooved pasta(teflon) is tortiglioni not rigatoni. If used rigatoni, surface area may potentially b smaller giving even greater differences in result. None the less great concise video! Love it
This video is really informative, like when people say "who cares?" but a lot of people do indeed kind of informative. Also unique, and comforting. Because you are spotting the differences in your kitchen, not in some boring, all-greyed factory. Now I'm going to check my pasta :D Thanks.
Here in Germany I always buy the cheapest pasta and it’s perfectly fine for me. It usually runs at less than 50 cent and whenever I use a fresh sauce no one will complain about the quality
Love to see that you are actually testing these things there are so many people out there that refuse to consider that something they learned might be wrong
And then there's me - adding corn starch to thicken the sauce, no matter what pasta I'm using *writes down last will*
Thanks for telling answer right up front. I watched the whole video never the less and learnt new things about pasta!
I'm Italian and i eat pasta nearly every day and yes, there is a significant difference and the expensive bronze cut pasta is much better, especially if you're going for a rustic recipe
I don't know if it's aviable where you live but my favourite is Rummo pasta
Rummo is probably hard to get it abroad, they don't really expand on their own as far as I know. I know De Cecco and Garofalo are really pushing the international market, those are much better than Barilla. Also, if you are lucky, you may find that even foreign grands may be done in Italy. They should always write the address of the factory, if it's made in Gragnano (NA) or anywhere in (MO) it is usually good.
La Molisana here. It's all we use now. I think it's even better than DeCecco tbh. Try their spaghetti quadrati instead of regular spaghetti for something different with amazing texture.
top tier content ethan!!
Even though i am vegan, (and are propably gonna use alot of substitutes to most dishes on this channel) i am really enjoying how Ethan goes so much into basics. Very motivating and well put together.
I must say this channel has to be one of my most favorite channels on youtube :))
Hello my animal loving friend! 😁
Loved your rapid-fire pronunciation of pasta sauces. Really good effort, man.
I tried this as part of my examination of "authenticity" in cooking. I started making Carbonara with Guanciale rather than Bacon or Pancetta. I bought a big heavy granite mortar and pestle rather than using a food processor to process the basil. I tried Irish cultured butter rather than domestic plain butter. And I bought De Cecco rather than Barilla pasta.
Final conclusion - not much difference. But I've never used the mortar and pestle again for basil, anymore than I have ever hand cranked ice cream ever again. If time is money - never do it by hand. You state the issues clearly and judiciously, but you need some blind taste tests to get quantitative results. My guess the results would be that bronze die pasta costs 50% more and is preferred by about 5% more tasters. You can train yourself to notice tiny distinctions just as you can teach yourself to only like an 1855 Bordeaux with dinner. Good luck with that.
This might be the most well-researched and articulately written comment I have read on a food video. Kudos!
We don't have easy to find bronze cut organic pasta here in Australia. The basic supermarket one is what I use and cook it as a one pot meal in the Instant Pot for 0 minutes. The sauce emulsifies well enough from the starch but the texture of the pasta isn't that great so thanks, this video was very helpful to understand why.
Call me stupid, but WHY exactly has the starch to come from the pasta? Wouldn't it work exactly as well -- or better, depending on the amount -- if you added the starch as a say slurry when creating the sauce?
That works yes!
Thank you for finally busting this nonsense about how ridges in pasta help sauce adhere better. Anyone who's ever eaten pasta should know this obviously makes no sense but I keep hearing it get repeated across youtube cooking channels. You're a blessing man!
Big brain move: Buy the cheap pasta and add some starch from a box into your pasta water
I was thinking the exact same thing. If the only difference is extrusion, saving 50 cents is worth much more than a tablespoon or two of white wheat flour. You would probably want to add it to the cold water before heating to prevent clumping (or add it directly to the sauce before cooking so you aren't just pouring most of it down the drain).
Cook your pasta in slightly less water and you’ll have the same density of starch per ml.
+
I love this series. Really good content. 10/10 would watch it again
This video has convinced me to always buy the cheaper pasta.
I mean, I always feel like a loser for choosing this option. I can barely feel any difference after cooking it and emulsifying it with the sauce of my choice. For me, it's a no-brainer for the cheaper version, which makes me concentrate more on the sauce's ingredients.
Leading with the final verdict rather than dragging it out to the end of the video? Subscribed!
What I learned from this video: If you are making a sauce from scratch and need the pasta water, use the more expensive pasta. If you're eating pasta with already prepared sauce, probably won't make a difference.
Try mixing pasta water to the already prepared sauce and pasta and mix well before eating. You'll thank me later ;)
Add a pinch of flower to the sauce, does the same
@@BeaglefreilaufKalkar what kind of flower? 🌼🌸🌻🌹?
Thanks for keeping it short and sweet, Ethan!
"You're not gonna taste the micro in foods, you're only gonna taste the macro in foods."
-Adam Ragusea
I've eaten Barilla literally all my life I have ALWAYS wondered about this! Thank you for the thoughtful experimentation and analysis. Your work is a gift to my cooking and curiosity. Keep it up!!!
Ingredient report:
Mayo and pickled onions were not seen in this video.
This has been your ingredient report.
sad day
This channel is great. He answers questions I never knew I had. I don’t even know there was an expensive or more costly pasta. Now I’ll have to go look.
Hey Ethan! While I enjoyed the video I have a couple issues with your scientific method that I‘d like to point out:
1) The two kinds of pasta have different shapes. This could result to more or less surface area for the same weight. I know it‘s hard to find the exact same shape of pasta but it should have at least been brought up.
2) The ingredients in the pasta were never discussed. The bronze pasta could just be made of flour that absorbs water better.
3) The bronze pasta doesn’t necessarily release more starch. It may have released the same amount as the other but absorbed more water. This would increase the starch concentration and thus make the water more opaque. You could have diluted the water to the same volume of the other beaker for a more rigorous test.
4) You describe the texture of the teflon pasta as firmer. Yet you also say you cooked them for the same amount of time and have found that the bronze pasta absorbes more water. A fairer test would require you to cook both to the manufacturers instructions and then test their texture.
All in all, I neither agree nor disagree with your conclusions. I just want to point out that your method to getting to them were flawed. You can do better next time :)
And for a more personal note: I like barilla and de‘cecci. They‘re my favourite and cut on bronze.
My comment isn't in relation to this one video, but in relation to the channel as a whole. I'm a home cook that is trying to drive up my skill and technique in the culinary arts as best I can and this channel in particular has been extremely revealing. I appreciate wholeheartedly everything I've learned from you. Your kitchen organization video was enlightening, I liked the refrigerator section in particular and have organized mine in a likewise fashion. Unfortunately I think my biggest issue at this point is the equipment I have at my disposal. I ate many homes and apartments in the Midwestern and other sections of the country have electric stove tops or induction tops. I would be very curious to see some other information regarding how cooking on these surfaces affects cook times and other QC aspects of cooking. Keep up the good work, I look forward to every video.
Anyone else here not understand why Americans call pasta 'noodles'?
Noodles are noodles.
Because they are Americans :)
Because this is Italian pasta, that’s what it’s called. Made with semolina flour in a specific way with specific shapes.
thank you Ethan for straight up getting into the topic and answer...good video
Deftinitly not worth paying more just for the added starch. Just cook the cheaper pasta in the minimal water volume required to increase the starch concentration in the water. Only learned more recently that you don't need anywhere near as much water to cook pasta as was preached for so many decades.
De cecco is much better than barilla...it cost about 1 dollar more per box and it is well worth it.
Great explanation and demonstration, Ethan!
As an Italian it's a pleasure to hear an American who actually knows his stuff when talking about pasta.
As if you know more about it lol.
Great episode Ethan! Informative as always. Thank you for doing these side by sides, and being completely honest and unbiased about the results. You are the perfect combination of a foodie and a scientist!
I personally prefer the more expensive one, because the cheap pasta here is locally made and it basically sucks. Also that starchyness you speak of is the thing i seek, so yeah.
Great video again, as always.
Great topic and video Ethan.
I have found the Felicetti & De Cecco vs Barilla has the following differences;
Felicetti & De Cecco seem to cook more uniformly. The tightness from the exterior to the interior seems more consistent, while the Barilla seems to be more done on the exterior than the interior.
Felicetti & De Cecco with and without pasta sauce, just taste better than Barilla.
Felicetti & De Cecco are a very noticeable and independently flavorful component to my pasta / marinara / Alfredo dishes while Barilla is a less noticeable ingredient that is well in the background behind the Pasta sauce.
Lasty, I agree with you 100%. The starchy water left over from excellent pasta is more useful for thickening and improving flavor of sauces, than cheap pasta water.
Anyway, that's what I have noticed.
I've always found the starch argument questionable. Wouldn't it be cheaper and easier to just add a handful of semolina to the cooking water? Or maybe reuse cooking water so the starch gets more concentrated.
Yup, Asian chefs do it all the time. Doubt it will taste any different
It is feasible to reserve starchy water between cookings for sure - I think Alex does this in one of his videos, and I've dabbled in it.
The advantage here is that the higher starch concentration just comes about naturally as a result of the pasta itself, and wouldn't require extra tools/steps beyond just cooking.
I do it very often, using a potato starch slurry. I still buy rummo pasta though, the texture difference is strong
Love this content answering something I've been pondering!
That was one hell of a creative way to pronounce "Amatriciana"
Not making fun of you, it's just funny to hear foreigners try to pronounce some italian words lol
“Amæshreeshiana”
Also "crux" as "crooks"....
Tysm for instantly answering the question instead of waiting till the last minute
What do you call a fake noodle?
An imPASTA.
woof.
Dad joke for the win!🤣🤣🤣
@@hollycaffeinatednerdgirl940 I just can't stand to make it... :D
I love the expensive ones. Rustichella
D'Abruzzo and DeCecco are my favorites but I can't find them or at least the ones I like everywhere.
Really good video, I would add the bronze die-cut ones even have a different taste. Thanks for sharing.
The different taste comes from the drying process. The cheap pasta is dried at a very high temperature, basically already cooking the thing. When you boil them you are really just rehydrating them. Good pasta, on the other hand, is dryed at low temperature and the flavor is preserved better
@@federicoclaps5099 Interesting. I once heard someone saying Rustichella D'Abruzzo were dried by breeze of the sea. Not sure if that's true but they certainly taste like that.
No
Nice that he gives the answer upfront, then goes on to explain why.
This is the type of channel that Ragusea strives to be but his ego keeps getting in the way.
You're doing better work here than America's Test Kitchen.
I've watched lots of ATK videos on different pastas, none make a comparison between or even mention Teflon vs. bronze die cuts. Good job!
First
First reply
Good for you.
Bruh
The first first I’ve seen that actually was first
@@pantopia3518 congratulations to me lol
Great video and very creative concept. Doing things differently to the other channels. I appreciate that
Loved this! You got straight to the point, then showed some solid analysis later. Like others have mentioned, you may want to dilute the bronze dye cut water up to the other pasta's levels to do an apples to apples starch comparison but that's really just a nitpick, the end result is still starchier pasta water
Is expensive pasta actually better?
That question is answered within 5 seconds.. But there's still another 5 minutes of information afterwards for those of us who want it. This is why I love Ethan's videos, straight to the point but also loaded with good recipes, amazing technical info, and just overall excellent production value with an awesome host.
As an Italian, this video makes me happy
I make spaghetti alla gricia at least once a week, and I have found that (of the available spaghetti in our local UK supermarket) De Cecco No 12 (bronze die) is the only one that allows the sauce to properly coat/stick to the individual noodles during the emulsification stage so that when served, the pasta remains glossy and coated with the sauce...